1407graymalkin.com

Hell Hath No Fury!

This commission is the fourth in a series of pieces I've commissioned from John Byrne, each of which involves a team of Marvel heroes, their headquarters and at least one really cool team vehicle.  In this case, I asked John to do a piece with the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier under assault by the hordes of Hydra with Nick Fury in his flying convertible fighting back along with the rest of his team.  As you can see below, the result is fantastic with a great cast of characters including Nick Fury, the Contessa, Dum Dum Dugan, Barron Von Strucker and lots of Hydra goons along with incredible renderings of the Helicarrier and Nick Fury's convertible.  Truly an action-packed scene!

"The piece is 20" x 30" and John Byrne said it was the largest S.H.I.E.L.D.
Helicarrier he'd ever drawn - larger even than in the She-Hulk Graphic Novel"

I've commissioned a number of pieces from John Byrne over the past few years and I continue to be amazed by the results.  I initially started giving very specific instructions for my commissioned pieces:  this character here, this character there, this position, this expression, etc. But, not surprisingly, what I've found over time is that John Byrne does a far better job of bringing a concept to life based only on a high-level description than I possibly could ever conceive.  He apparently can almost immediately picture a scene in his mind's eye when it's described to him and render it perfectly, which is a skill I find truly remarkable.

 

Hooked On A Theme

The commissions that John Byrne has done for me with the theme of a team of heroes, their headquarters and vehicles are among the favorite pieces in my original comic art collection.  At the heart of it, these commissions embody so many of the fun and exciting things I dreamed about as a young boy when I pictured myself in the Marvel Universe.  How cool would it have been to go to school at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, live in the Baxter Building or the Avengers Mansion or be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. stationed on the Helicarrier?  These commissions definitely bring out fond memories of the 12-year-old in me.

What's Next?

At this point, I've done the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D., so I'm trying to figure out what - if anything - to do next.  I've given some thought to the Defenders flying up up and away from Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, but they don't have a cool team vehicle other than Valkyrie's horse Aragorn.  I also thought about doing the Champions since they have a great flying vehicle, but they don't really have an iconic headquarters.  As much as I love Alpha Flight, their team vehicle is a ripoff of the Avengers Quinjet and they don't have an iconic headquarters either.  So, I'm thinking about flipping the theme a bit.

"Perhaps the Fantastic Four attacking Castle Doom or the Invaders
attacking Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Ah, delicious food for thought."

I was tempted to move into the DC Universe with the Batcave, Hall of Justice, Fortress of Solitude, Watchtower, etc., but my true love from my early days of comic reading is really the Marvel Universe.  So, rather than doing the heroic team's headquarters, I'm thinking about commissioning an assault on a villain's headquarters.  I can definitely imagine a piece with the Fantastic Four attacking Castle Doom with Dr. Doom blasting away and an army of Doombots flying through the air.  Or maybe the Invaders attacking Hitler's Eagle's Nest from above with Master Man, Warrior Woman and the other Axis supervillians leading the counter-assault.  Ah, delicious food for thought.

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 04:54 PM | Permalink

The One That Almost Got Away

As a fan of David Mack’s work, I was thrilled when I learned that he was slated to do the covers for the three Ms. Marvel Civil War crossover issues that were published in late 2006.  I actually went to New York Comic-Con in February 2007, hoping to find that David had brought the original art for the Ms. Marvel covers to his table in Artist’s Alley.  As it turned out, he had already sold the cover art to issue 6, although he still had the covers for issues 7 and 8.  I had my heart set on issue 6, so I resisted the temptation of the other covers, realizing that I had no shortage of other original art that I really really wanted to buy.  Six months later, imagine my pleasure to find this cover for sale in a member's gallery on ComicArtFans.com.  It was almost too good to be true.  It turns out that the owner was already negotiating a trade for the piece with another prospective buyer, but I managed to persuade him to sell it to me and a few days ago it arrived in the mail.  Here's a small scan of the original art and you can click on the image to view a high-resolution version of it.

 

The cover art looks like it was lightly penciled and then painted in watercolor or ink on the back of a standard 11” x 17” Blue Line Pro comic art board.  Ms. Marvel appears in front of an American flag, which is actually a color photostat of a flag that was cut perfectly to fill in the white space around her figure.  It’s an interesting effect, particularly along her arms and torso where the flag essentially establishes the border that would normally be done with a black line.  The art takes up a little more than half the cover, like all the Civil War crossover covers, leaving plenty of room below for the title and indicia.  I remember when I first saw the published comic that I wondered if Marvel had cropped a full figure image of Ms. Marvel in order to fit it on the half cover and, if so, how did they decide to crop her head below the mouth?  As it turns out, David Mack painted it so that the art cuts off below her eyes and Marvel then cropped it so that it cuts off below her mouth.  Why?  I’m not sure, although I’d guess that the cutoff point is either a nod to the secret identity sub-plot of the Civil War storyline or to Ms. Marvel's unspoken misgivings about the government's stance on the Civil War.

The Promotional Art Layout

The Published Comic

 

 

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 03:30 PM | Permalink

John Byrne's "Try Out" For The X-Men

I acquired this page at the May 2007 Heritage Comics Signature Auction, which showcased a number of John Byrne interior original art pages from the X-Men, Power-Man, Iron Fist, Marvel Team-Up and a few other titles.  This issue of Iron Fist has always stood out to me as an important one because it was ostensibly John Byrne's "try out" for the X-Men.  Given the history, it's clear that he passed with flying colors, despite the fact that Dave Cockrum did a bit more than "Fix Wolvie's Costume" as he was directed by the note at the bottom of the page.  In fact, on John Byrne's web site, he noted that virtually every X-Man figure on this page was redrawn to some extent by Dave Cockrum.  In any case, it's a great page written by Chris Claremont with fantastic art by John Byrne and Dave Cockrum, the creative team largely responsible for the rebirth of the X-Men and the creation of an incredibly successful franchise that has endured for more than thirty years. 

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 10:38 AM | Permalink